Lena was not engaged in her modern politics class.

It had been a month, and she could not find a reason to enjoy the class. She liked Mr. Ellis. She loved the way he paced about the classroom, often going on tangents about American politics. The fact of the matter was, Lena did not care. Every ounce of what humans called 'politics' felt like old men whining about issues that they had caused themselves. Unlike most of her peers, Lena lacked the background that the class needed. She did not know human history as well as she wished she did. She had gone over it with her tutor, Miss Gomez, but it had been her least favorite subject.

Occasionally Tony was brought up in discussion, which resulted in eyes wandering over to her direction, cautiously watching if she would react. The alibi that Tony and Pepper had developed was that she was their niece, living with them after her mother died in an accident. It was more thorough of an alibi than it seemed at first glance. Lena did not talk much to others, Peter said it was because she was still recovering from her mother's death. It also gave her a reason to be lacking in what a typical student might know. Her lapse of knowledge could always be blamed on a tragedy that never happened.

At school, she wore her hair in two braids. May had taught Peter and Peter had taught Lena, and the hairstyle was the only way to mask the fact that her hair was long enough to match The Siren's. That was the thing. No one could know that she was secretly a superhero.

The two braids made her face more open. She felt as if everyone could see it, and everyone was looking at it. The first week Peter had told her it was because she was Tony's niece, the second week he said that shock takes a while to die down, but now it was the fourth week of school for her, and both young men and women let their eyes hold onto her for a little too long, and she felt every single one. The men were worse than the women. Their energies were predatorial and aggressive. The women, while they were rare, had softer, gentler energies. She had started to understand that not all men were like Peter Parker.

The bell rang, the odd indicator that class was over, and Lena threw her things into her bag, following Peter and his friends out the door. They delved into their usual banter, Ned teasing Peter about one thing, MJ flicking Ned's ear about another. Lena usually watched quietly, laughing when she found something funny. Peter's friends never pressured her to be anything more than what she wanted, making it easier to be herself.

"Lena, you coming with us to get food?" MJ offered it nonchalantly like she did every week. Usually, she and Peter declined, needing to start on their evening patrol, but she recalled Peter mentioning going earlier. She looked up at Peter who shrugged, and then back to MJ.

"Yeah. Sure."

It was a quick walk to Ned and MJ's usual food spot. The place was small and tucked behind a corner. Not the ideal location for business, but the food was apparently delicious. They sat down at a small table by the window, each one bringing out their homework to get a head start.

"I hate The Odyssey."

"Is calculus really that important?"

"Chem makes me want to blow my head off."

The comments and complaints about school circled around the table, always skipping Lena. She would have contributed if she had known how, but most of the time she liked school. It was an anomaly for a student to enjoy what they were forced to do, but she looked forward to most of her classes, and the idea of learning something she had not known before was exhilarating.

She wrote her math problems, smoothly zipping through them, and continued to listen to them chat.

"I know that it looked like the alien guy shot first, but Ned, I'm telling you, it had to be Han."

"You guys are losers."

"What-"

Peter sounded like he had more to say, but he was cut off by the sound of something that no one else heard. Lena had grown used to moments like this. She could feel the hair on his arms rise, his ears perking up. He looked over his shoulder, and then met her eyes, barely nodding.

Do it.

She sang, quietly at first, so that when it got louder it did not seem so oddly out of place. She saw Ned and MJ's eyes glaze over followed by their server and the one other couple in the restaurant. It was the perfect distraction to suit up for a mission. It hid them in plain sight. Pulling the suit up her body and the goggles around her eyes, it tightened around her, her hair being lifted up into its ponytail, and PET coming to life as everything locked into place. Looking at Ned and MJ, she placed a delusion in their mind to cover their backs. Ned did not need it, but they would rather not put him in danger if they did not have to.

Peter and I had to suddenly leave at Mr. Stark's request.

Peter webbed their backpacks into his arms, throwing them against a tree and securing it with more webbing. With a thumbs up, they took off running towards whatever Peter had heard.

A month of combat training was not enough. She was still working towards being somewhat close to as physically fit as Peter was.

"He cheated, Lena. He got bitten by a radioactive spider, don't be so hard on yourself," Tony had said after watching one of her sessions. He could see the frustration in her eyes when Peter had knocked her to the ground for the tenth time that day. At least the training was effective; it helped her learn how operated as well as how she operated on her own.

Peter lifted his hand up, signaling her to stop, and when she caught up, she was out of breath. He was not. She panted as quietly as possible peering underneath his arm to get a look at the situation.

"Looks like we got a robbery. From that small little jewelry store. C'mon man, it's locally owned!" he whispered it in his suit, but she heard it through hers. It was a nice touch that Tony had added for their communication.

Peter usually came at situations without a plan. It was more likely for him to have an upper hand, and he seemed to have fun with improvising the way he handled it.

"Hey sir!" he yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth, still not revealing himself, "Did you know that robbery is against the law?" he paused, and they both heard the shuffling come to a steady halt.

"Did you also know," he shot a web on a streetlight across the way, "That stealing from small businesses," she could feel the adrenaline, he launched himself up, swung around the light, and released his grip on the web, shouting, "Is a DICK MOVE!"

She somersaulted forward, not revealing herself, initially. Perpetrators were more likely to try and block her out if they had seen her before she started singing. It usually did not work, but she thought that the effort was cute. Peter said their code word quietly, so only she could hear and, and clicking on the speakers attached to her suit, she began to sing, directing it at anyone that could hear excluding Peter.

"Oh shit The Siren's with-"

That was the last she heard from them. Calmly walking to the crime scene, Lena could feel the thick fog that her voice created. Inside, one man dressed in all black held a gun to another's head, both of their eyes wide from the trance. The only barrier between Peter and them was a checkout counter. It was a sticky situation. Lena did not know what Peter would have done if she had not been there. He would have figured it out, it just would have taken a bit longer.

He used a web to yank the gun from the criminal's hand and used more to pin the man to the wall, rendering him immobile. Lena let go of the trance, the fog lifting, and the victim coming to. She could sense his panic.

"Wha-what just-what just happened?" he pitched forward slightly, using the counter to lean on.

"Sir, it is all right," she was still working on sounding comforting, but she tended to lean more towards robotic.

"You guys are...you guys are…"

Sirens belonging to police cars blared, which was usually their queue to leave. The Siren was still the face of the merchant ships that had vanished, people still associated her with their deaths, without proof that she had actually partaken in those hunts. It was likely that she had, but that did not make her responsible for all of the deaths. She squeezed her eyes to try and refocus.

"We're Spider-Man and The Siren! We're here to help, my man. Sit down for a sec, you're going to be fine, but we've gotta go," part of the job was calming people down, and Peter had developed a knack for it. He was gentle and kind with everyone, even after aggressively beating someone up.

Lena hummed a little tune, attempting to ease the man into relaxation. His eyes closed halfway as he listened, and they ran out, grabbing their backpacks off the tree along the way.

Should we go back to Ned and MJ? She asked in his head.

"No, let's just continue our patrol for today. Nice work, by the way!"

"Thanks!"

They had seen less of each other now that she was enrolled in school. It was not technically less, but the time they spent was either with other people or under their masks as their alter egos. There was hardly a moment when they had the same quality time they used to have leading up to her first day at Midtown Tech. While he could never become an absolute stranger to her, it was cutting it pretty close. She wished there was some way-

"Everything okay?" he broke her train of thought. He was standing on the the side of the building, probably looking at her with concern.

"Fine. I am fine."

"Okay. Hop on."

Usually, he would have pushed her a little harder.

She did not have the same sticky fingers that the spider bite had given him, so every afternoon she found herself clinging to his back as he climbed. It took a great deal of effort, but it was good strength training. When he reached the top, she let go, falling onto her back and looking at the sky.

For some reason she was pensive. She wished things could go back to the way they had been a month ago. Watching Rapunzel, chatting with Peter one-on-one every day, the moments where they would steal eye contact, longing for just one thing.

She was ready to tell him, but the opportunity never felt right.

"What's wrong with you today?" the comment had a snarky air to it. She hauled out a heavy sigh.

"Nothing."

"Doesn't sound like nothing."

"Why do you care."

She saw the expression he responded with through the animated eyes on his mask, and he was slightly taken aback, but not completely shocked. He was not completely oblivious to the rift between , despite their dissonance, she could still read him through their bond entirely the same. She glared at him, knowing he would not be able to see it.

He sat down, pulling the mask off and leaning back to keep any passersby from seeing. His hair was fluffy and ruffled from being pressed down for so long, and his eyes were staring at the sun going down over the New York Skyline. She was not going to lie to herself, it was a nice view.

"I know things have been different since you started school," he said, letting one of his hands clench a fistful of his hair, "I didn't expect it to be like this either but…" there was something he was on the brink of saying, but he did not want to. The way his thoughts were folding over one another she could tell he was anxious beyond belief.

"Would you stop going through my head like that?" he snapped, and this time it was her who was taken back. He had never opposed it before, in fact, she recalled that he had said to her that he did not mind.

"It's not the same because you've been hiding something from me, and I...I don't know. I started getting tired of it."

She felt her heart drop to her stomach.

"Peter-"

"No, it's okay. Don't feel pressured. I don't want you to tell me until you're ready. If you're ever ready."

If you are ever ready. The phrase seemed to echo.

He was frowning. He was looking at the skyline and the sunset and he was frowning. She frowned too.

She was looking at a stranger, and she did not know how it had gotten to that point. She stood, brushing bits of gravel off of her knees and offered him a hand up. When he stood, their faces stood inches apart, so close that she could feel his breath. They had not been that close since their movie night.

"Do you want me to tell you?" she asked.

His eyes were searching for her, looking deep to find an inch of deception. She had been holding onto this for so long that he was not sure if this moment was actually happening.

"Yes."

She placed her palm on his cheek, then her index and middle finger on his temple, and with a deep inhale, she showed him.